methane

Once touted as the answer to U.S. energy consumers' dreams, it is beginning to look like the natural gas extraction process known as "fracking" may be as much of an environmental obscenity as the name suggests. From poisoned wells to frackquakes, methane release to quality of life drains, hydraulic fracturing hasn't been all it was cracked up to be. So why not add a little radiation to the mix?

A Cambridge, MA, nonprofit which organizes public weatherization parties and barnraisings, is crowd funding a natural gas leak monitoring project in Cambridge and Somerville. After a Boston University professor discovered 3,356 natural gas leaks throughout Boston with a high-precision methane analyzer, the technology and efforts are moving outside of Boston proper, both to stop leaks and to see if Cambridge's energy company incentives work to fix leaks.

World carbon dioxide pollution levels in the atmosphere are accelerating and reached a record high in 2012, the U.N. weather agency said Wednesday. The heat-trapping gas, pumped into the air by cars and smokestacks, was measured at 393.1 parts per million last year, up 2.2 ppm from the previous year, said the Geneva-based World Meteorological Organization in its annual greenhouse gas inventory.

In mid-September, researchers from the University of Texas published a study hailed by a triumphant oil and gas industry, which claimed it definitively showed that methane leaks from fracking are minimal. Major news outlets largely proclaimed that the study showed the EPA had dramatically overestimated methane leaks from the drilling boom. As the celebrations died down and more rigorous analysis of the study has begun, scientists are finding that the UT study is riddled with flaws.

Alongside releasing its controversial findings on fugitive methane emissions caused by fracking this week, University of Texas-Austin also unveiled an industry-stacked Steering Committee roster for the study it conducted in concert with Environmental Defense Fund. Only two out of the 11 members of the Steering Committee, besides lead author David Allen, have a science background relevant to onshore fracking.